The Day After
by bettercrazythanboring
Summary: It's the day after the series finale and Kat and Ethan are dealing with the aftermath of their actions and feelings.


It was early morning when a jab at his arm woke Ethan up.

He'd fallen asleep propped up against the wall while waiting for Kat; his single red rose now lay wilted on the floor next to him. He was dirty, sweaty and tired - not exactly the condition he'd planned on being in while professing his love (or at least larger than average like) to the woman who'd just had her heart broken yesterday.

But she was standing right there over him with a mildly annoyed look, so he supposed it'd just have to do.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" she asked, getting out her keys as Ethan tried to hide the rose out of sight.

"Oh, I was just... Do I smell alcohol?"

"Yeah, that's me. I need to get into a shower ASAP."

"What, did you rob a liquor store?" he asked, trying to lighten his own mood, but then realized it was not out of the realm of possibility, "Wait, did you?"

"Yeah, I robbed a liquor store. And then I smashed every bottle on myself so that cops could identify me a mile away." Kat threw up her arms in frustration.

"Hey, people do stupid things after break-ups!" Ethan said, going over to the coffee pot.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Kat rolled her eyes, stripping down, "Don't think I've ever done anything this stupid while being drunk. You're a doctor; is an allergy to British jackasses a drug that doesn't mix with booze?"

"Generally, yes, although you don't need someone with a medical license to tell you that. What was this epically stupid thing anyway?"

"Oh, I slept with this guy I see on a sort-of regular basis and it's gonna be _a-wkward_ when we bump into each other," she said, heading to the shower, "Oh, hey, you never told me what you were doing in the hallway like some hobo. Kyle kick ya out of your own crib, hot shot?"

"What? Oh, no. I was just, uh..." He looked at her face, her mussed hair and the need to be alone under all that denial and decided to lie. "Just wanted to see if you were okay."

"So you stayed here all night?"

"In my defense, I didn't notice when I fell asleep. I'm a doctor, I'm always tired."

"Well, you didn't have to do that anyway. I'm not one of your patients. I'm fine."

Did she really think she was?

"Anyway, your coffee's ready. See you when I get out."

"You know what, I think I'm gonna head home. You... enjoy the coffee."

"Dude, you brew a whole pot. At least take some with you."

"Sure."

* * *

"I completely chickened out," Ethan said to Kyle later that day at lunch, "She was standing there, hungover and talking about stupid decisions, and I completely chickened out."

"Sounds like she was in a weird mood; she might've even be up for considering having a one-night-stand with you. That's not what you want, right? So I think you did the right thing. Give her time."

"Yeah, but how much time? I see her every day and all I kept thinking while she was in front of me, half-naked, might I add, was how much I wanted to kiss her. This is all your fault. If you hadn't gotten into my head with all your 'are you the guy?' talk I would be perfectly happy right now with no feelings of angst whatsoever! _Damn you, Kyle!_"

"You'd have gotten there, eventually," Kyle said, popping a fry into his mouth.

"Oh, would I? _Would I?_"

"Buddy, even your _girlfriend_ expected you to dump her for Kat."

"But Palmer doesn't count; she had a crush on Kat herself."

"Either way, man, it's been clear to everyone who's seen you two that you that there's a little something something there."

"Oh, shut up," Ethan snapped, downing his entire bottle of beer in one take.

"Careful there, you might get drunk and sleep with an acquaintance." Kyle grinned.

BREAK

Kat was having a horrible day. Her head hurt from the previous night's drinking (and the Lake House watching; why the hell she'd even watched it till the end was beyond her), the muscles were sore from crazy monkey sex with Duncan and on top of that her employer was unhappy with the work she'd done lately. Oh, and her boyfriend, the most serious relationship she'd ever had, had turned out to be a lying, cheating scumbag bastard.

If yesterday had been the most messed up day of her life, this one was even harder. Her life was quickly deteriorating; even Ethan couldn't stand to be around her for long and he was supposed to be her best friend.

"Hey, Kat," Lina said on the phone, "You're never guess what happened last night."

"A whole buncha things, I assume. Get in line." Unless her sister had been run over by a car (again), Kat wasn't really in the mood to deal with her much more optimistic twin today.

"Richie proposed!" she squealed.

Kat banged her head against the wall silently. This day was just getting better and better.

"Congrats, sis," she forced out, "Wait, you said yes, right?"

"Of course!"

"Oh, good, I was worried you had come to your senses and dumped his ass down the drain, but fortunately I was wrong."

"Oh, don't be that way; I know you secretly like him. And he's going to be your brother-in-law now – won't that be fun?"

"As long as he doesn't drive near me."

"Will you never let that go?"

"Not even a little."

"Anyway, do you and Benjamin want to double tonight?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not? Come on, Kat, it'll be great!"

"Uh, yeah, it won't. I broke up with him yesterday."

"What? Why?"

"Because he turned out to be a cheating asshole, that's why."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"You know what, don't be. I'm fine. I just don't think I'll be up for much celebration with you and Richie. I'm glad you're happy, though."

"I am. Well... maybe you and Ethan can still come and we can make it a friend thing?"

"I don't know. I'll think about it."

"All right, let me know. And feel better. You'll meet the right guy someday."

"He has five, no, four days to show up. After that I'm swearing them off."

"Who knows, maybe he'll run you over."

"Don't even."

* * *

She ended up agreeing to go after broaching the subject with Ethan; he somehow convinced her that a night of celebrating happiness with friends would help her, too. In some way seeing that not every guy on the planet was a violinist who deserved to have his head cut off or some such nonsense. But it could be good for her, she supposed. So many bad things had been happening lately – the heart attack, three break-ups, Kyle hanging out at Ethan's regularly – that maybe a night of fun was just what they all needed.

It wasn't just the four of them either, as she found out. The whole group – Lina, Richie, Duncan, Nicole, Kyle, Perry, Ethan and herself – was there, for what she was pretty sure the first time in the same room at the same time since The Party.

A night of socializing and reminiscing about old times, finding out what everyone had been up to in the last year and congratulating the happy couple had begun.

Kat put in the effort, tried to be sociable (well, by her standards) for her sister, but she wasn't feeling it at all. After twenty minutes she retired to her sister's bathroom to get some peace and quiet and maybe look at the video of Holly stabbing the bunny with her shoe on her phone. Ethan, noticing that, followed her after a few minutes. It wasn't that he was particularly worried about her or thought she needed to be taken care of, he just... wanted her to be happy. And maybe it would take time, maybe her heart wouldn't immediately accept that Benjamin wasn't worth the heartache, but if he could make her smile just once... He recognized her need to mourn, but it only went so far. It wouldn't be good for her to be gloomy all the time.

"Knock, knock," he said, entering the bathroom.

"You're being weird," Kat said, making room on the edge of the bathtub, "First you run off this morning and now you're stalking me."

"I didn't run off. I just needed to... change into a clean shirt and go to work."

"Why were you even there? Don't give me that 'check up on you' speech; you never do that."

"I... Ugh, I was hoping to talk to you about something, but I realized it was a bad time."

"What was it?"

"Forget it."

"Dude, isn't now a better time for whatever it is? I'm not going back to the party anyway, not even if someone breaks up with someone publicly, so you might as well tell me."

"Oh, fine. Last night I was talking with Kyle and he - kind of – made me realize that I might _maybe_ possibly have some sort of romantic feelings for you."

"Oh."

"So that's that."

"Well, I didn't see that coming. I think."

"What do you think?"

"I think..." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I think that you are my best friend and, uh, I don't want to lose you. For whatever reason. My life is a mess right now and I don't think rushing into something would be the way to go."

"Right. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, Ethan." She slowly and jittery leaned in and kissed him in her very Kat way. "Ask me again in a while."

And with that, she was out the door and back into the party, a small smile on her lips, leaving Ethan dumbstruck and strangely hopeful.

She was one hell of a woman.


End file.
